NEW YORK CITY: Atlantic Theater Company has announced its 2017-18 season, which will include world premieres and New York premieres.
The season will open with the New York premiere of On the Shore of the Wide World by Simon Stephens (Aug. 23-Oct. 1). The Olivier Award-winning play is about a family whose lives are about to be changed forever. Atlantic artistic director Neil Pepe will direct.
Next the theatre will present the world premiere of Describe the Night by Rajiv Joseph (Nov. 1-Dec. 17). The play, a coproduction with Houston’s Alley Theatre, is set in Russia over the course of 80 years, from 1920 to 2010, and follows the lives of seven men and women. Giovanna Sardelli will direct.
After that will be the world premiere of The Homecoming Queen by Ngozi Anyanwu (Jan. 10-Feb. 11, 2018). The play is about a novelist who returns to Nigeria to care for her ailing father and relearns the traditions she’s forgotten.
Next the Atlantic will present the American premiere of the Royal Court Theatre production of Hangmen by Martin McDonagh (Jan. 18-March 4, 2018). The play, which takes place in the English town of Oldman, is about a skilled hangman who discovers that hanging has been abolished. Matthew Dunster will direct.
The world premiere musical This Ain’t No Disco (May 11-July 1, 2018), with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and Peter Yanowitz and book by Rick Elice, will be next. The musical is set in 1979 New York City and follows people who frequent Studio 54 and Mudd Club.
The season will close with the New York premiere of The Great Leap by Lauren Yee (May 23-June 17, 2018). The play is set in 1989 and is about an American basketball team who travels to Beijing for a “friendship” game.
In addition to its mainstage season, the Atlantic will present a world premiere musical for young audiences, Polkadots: The Cool Kids Musical (Sept. 16-Oct. 8), by Douglas Lyons, Melvin Tunstall III, and Greg Borowsky. The musical is about 8-year-old Lily Polkadot, who moves to the “Squares Only” small town of Rockaway.
Founded in 1985, Atlantic Theater Company is dedicated to producing new plays Off Broadway.
